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Today, I have a beautifully crafted guest article from BritishCynicism, a good friend of mine. Check his site – here.

Top 5 reasons to be excited about Peter Capaldi becoming the new doctor

I am a huge doctor who fan. Like literally massive. I’ve been watching it for far too long, and have been caring about its characters for even longer (don’t ask how it works), and so now I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp on the whole thing; It’s good points, it’s bad points and its points that we’d rather leave alone in the corner to think about what it’s done (COUGH COUGH Dinosaurs on a spaceship).

Now, I have to admit, I did get pretty damn teary when Matt Smith said his final goodbyes at Christmas, and have been recovering very slowly ever since, but it’s come to the point now where I’m starting to see the positives of this whole situation by looking forward and smiling rather than looking back and hideously weeping and screaming in some sort of weird combination resembling half of the cinema after having to sit through happy feet 2 four times over non-stop. Peter Capaldi has already received some hate since being named as the new doctor, as you would probably expect, but here I am today to tell you that it’s not all that bad, and give you 5 good reasons why Peter Capaldi is a good casting choice as the last of the Time Lords.

He’s older

Despite how many people see this as a major issue concerning the casting, Capaldi’s age ironically allows him to breath fresh new life into the role, and allows a whole different view on the Doctor to be formed now that we have someone who looks closer to the real age of the Doctor, rather than the baby-faced Smith and less-baby-faced-but-still-more-baby-faced-than-Capaldi Tennant. Having this older figure means that his age is more believable and his ravage from time and space and most of the time central Cardiff can actually be shown rather than just imagined. It takes the focus away from jumping about and running around and puts it more on the emotional portrayal of the Doctor himself and you know, his face, which will be nice to see as its something new for the NuWho generation. Hopefully the ‘Run’ line won’t be changed to ‘pout’ though.

He’s, you know, a good actor

Peter Capaldi is arguably one of the best TV britsh actors out there, comedy wise anyways, and has received large amounts of praise for his role as Malcolm Tucker in ‘The Thick of It’ and its subsequent film In the Loop, as well as his countless other roles in British TV including Doctor Who and Torchwood. Now, I’m not the best at all this, but I think that means that he’s a pretty good actor, if he’s managed to get this far without appearing in a 1980’s remake or a CGI film about a small boys lifelong dream to become the first pilot with a detachable neck. If this is true, then surely, it’s a good thing that there’s a good actor gracing the audiences of Doctor Who, and we should be embracing this rather than telling him to go ‘do one’ followed up by the customary two fingers at each one of his now broken hearts.

He’s a big fan of the show

In case you didn’t know by now, Peter Capaldi is actually a huge fan of the show, and has been since he was a child, just like most of the people watching at home, so if anyone wants him to do well in this role, it’s him. He’s been wanting this role since he was a child, and so hopefully, he’ll be doing his best to do it some justice at least, and considering he probably should know the show inside out by now, who’s to say that he can’t? The fact that he’s a fan combined with his good acting skills means that he’ll be able to bring something we haven’t seen for a while to a very old role, and I don’t know about you but I’m excited for it, because I know that the role couldn’t be in much better hands. Except for an actual time lord. That’d be pretty cool. But budget cuts screwed that one I guess.

No more Doctor-Human romance

Let’s be honest, over the past few years, the doctor has been getting around. Quite a lot. I don’t have a problem with it, god no, especially not with Clara now leading the line, but I feel that now might just be the time for the Doctor to step away from the bedroom department, but his screwdriver back in his trousers and focus on actually saving his people rather than playing tonsil-tennis with some random girl from Croydon who gets captured every episode. Peter Capaldi, being substantially older than Clara, should hopefully step away from all this (without the BBC crossing some serious lines) and so hopefully this will allow both the Doctor and Clara’s characters to develop in different directions rather than just companions with benefits, which, in my humble opinion, will be a nice change from the usual romance we’re used to.

He’s playing the Doctor

Since Peter Capaldi is playing the part we all love, I think that maybe just a little bit of support would be nice for the new part of the show. The character himself hasn’t changed, just the actor, and so it’s not too much of a massive change, especially considering the calibre of actor. Also, the new actor means that the whole dynamic of the show can change for the better, exploring new avenues of stories, emotions, actors and enemies which weren’t easy to do in Smith’s slightly more lively reign as the Doctor. And that is exciting, no matter how you look it. And I’ll damn well tut at anyone who says otherwise.

Peter Capaldi, I welcome you with open arms, and everyone else should too.

Just half an hour ago, Twitch Plays Pokemon kick-started their second journey into the Johto region and the wonders that lie within. Sitting here watching it, I’ve been trying to think of five awesome reasons why this will possibly be better than the original. So without further ado, let’s begin!

Number One – Shiny Pokémon

With the release of Generation Two, Nintendo introduced Shiny Pokémon into the game – I struggle enough through a playthrough when trying to find a shiny but with the length of time it’s going to take the stream to complete this game, I would not be surprised if they encounter one. I cannot wait to see the dread and disappointment on the faces of people as they watch a shiny Sneasel lose all of it’s HP and faint. This may not happen straight away, but when it does, I’m sure it will go down as the most watched part of the stream.

Number Two – All The Gyms!

Unlike the first generation, the second generation included a whole new set of gyms but included the old ones too – this means 16 badges and then the Pokémon league. It took long enough on the first stream to collect 8 badges and beat the league, but another 8 as-well. My Helix, this is going to take forever and at this rate, forty minutes through the game and we’re still stuck in the long grass on THE FIRST ROUTE, this is going to be a long adventure, my friends.

Number Three – Bug Contests!

I think a genuinely interesting challenge will be seeing if 80,000 people can win the bug-catching-contest which taunted us as children, spending 15 minutes looking for a Scyther, only to be outmatched by a level 15 Metapod? This is the kind of contest I’ll be interested in seeing when we finally get there. I think we should take on one challenge at a time, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Number Four – Suicune

Talking about getting ahead of ourselves, Suicune, the most illustrious legendary in the game, always running, always hiding, it will be interesting to see, after we’ve beaten the league, if we keep playing until we catch Suicune. I remember spending hours as a kid trying to hunt down and catch suicune, so considering how much of an distortion of mess TPP is, it will definitely be a miracle if they can do it.

Number Five – The Hype

When the first Twitch Plays Pokemon launched, it was fairly unheard of but since then it has become an internet phenomenon – with this comes hype. Already, 40 minutes through the stream, 80.000 people are watching, and this is before a majority of Americans have come on the stream. This is a large amount of viewers to have and I doubt the hype will stop there, before long I expect way over 100,000 viewers on average.

In a week where I’ve already posted two Walking Dead articles, I thought that a third could do no harm – for this article, it’s five characters who I can realistically see dying in the latter end of Season Four – whether or not you agree with my opinions doesn’t matter, just sit back and enjoy the article.

Number 1 – Beth Greene

Beth’s been around for a while and really, in my opinion, lacks some very important survival skills that the other characters possess. She’s learning, becoming more emotionally detached to people and things during the apocalypse now but she is still an inferior survivalist when compared to many of the other characters. Her only saving grace at the moment is Daryl and she’s demonstrated that without him, she’d sure as hell be dead by now, even in the last few episodes.The longer Beth and Daryl go without shelter, the more danger they are put in and I definitely think Beth has a chance of dying. Chance of Death – 60%

Number 2 – Eugene the Science Guy

Eugene is probably the character I am least certain about: despite the fact he is the character on this list with the least survival skills. A relatively new character to the series, being introduced at the end of episode ten, Eugene is a scientist who apparently has some knowledge as to the origins of the virus – this vital knowledge would presumably give him some sort of immunity but I have a feeling that he may not last for the rest of this season, killing him off would throw a vital spanner in the works for Abraham’s mission to Washington D.C. and it would be interesting to see what would happen if Eugene. Chance of Death – 50%

Number 3 – Sasha

Tyreese’s younger sister, Sasha, is definitely a candidate for a possible death during end of this season – after catching the illness that spread around the prison, she was near-death anyway before luckily making a recovery in time to evacuate the prison. However, I think that her number is almost definitely up and if the writers were to kill of any character in particular, Sasha is up there with the favourites – she no longer has much of an interesting development-path as she has really explored all elements of her storyline. Chance of Death – 80%

Number 4 – Tara

Tara, introduced during the last half-season as the lesbian-cop-girl who genuinely has kicked arse over the last few episodes, refusing to fight alongside the Governor during the assault on the prison and more recently, teaming up with Glenn after the group has split up. However, I think that she essentially, is surplus to the show’s requirements and therefore, despite being able to shoot and having the survival skills necessary to survive. To cut a long story short, I assumed that either Tara or Glenn would die this season and I just feel that Tara is the more likely of two. Chance of Death – 65%

Number 5 – Daryl Dixon

This one may be the most risqué of all my decisions today but I have a gut-feeling, albeit a nasty one, that Daryl will die this season. The writer’s have spent a lot of time developing Daryl’s character and I think the perfect way to make people remember the Walking Dead would be to take a leaf out of Game of Thrones’ book and kill off one of the most loved characters. Since the re-start after the midseason break, he has had a pessimistic outlook on things, believing that he and Beth are the only survivors from the prison attack, added to the fact that he’s paired up with Beth, who is an accident waiting to happen (see the first character on this list). Daryl is in serious danger and therefore, if the writers really want to shock audience, we will see Daryl die before the end of this series. Chance of Death – 80%

Breaking Bad, the phenomenal success that took the world by storm and concluded last year. It was an outstanding show with class acting, great cinematography and a killer story following a chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with cancer and decides to provide for his family by joining the meth-cooking industry, working his way up from local dealer to drug kingpin, Breaking Bad is a show you won’t forget for a long time. Hidden beneath all the action and meth-heads lie a variety of different connotations and morals we can gather from the series, cleverly worked in across the seasons by writer Vince Gilligan. Today, I’m going to run through five valuable life lessons we can learn from the show. Hope you enjoy!

1. Actions Have Consequences

Perhaps the biggest lesson of them all, this is one which we see over all five of the super-popular seasons. Everything Walt does has consequences: some beneficial, but in the most part, disastrous. For example, the whole ‘Risen’ debacle gets Walt into poor terms with Jesse which, without spoiling too much for those who have been hiding under a rock for the last few months, eventually leads to some ‘interesting’ things happening. This is a very important lesson to learn, everything you do: no matter how big or small, will find it’s way back to you, so be careful.

2. Family is Important (But Don’t Lie to Them!)

Throughout the show, Walt justifies his actions as “for his family”, which is true in some sense of the term, but ultimately, deceiving his family lead to the strained relationship with Skyler and the deterioration of his relationship with his son Walt Jnr. Season three is a big turning point where Walt continues to cook meth even after Skyler leaves him, as Gus manages to convince him to stay on. This is important as from here on, it ultimately becomes more of a ‘selfish’ which he is doing, despite his wife leaving him, he continues to partake in the actions which caused the breakup. So remember, do try and provide for your family, but try not to lie to them about your illegal actions.

3. Don’t Judge a Book by It’s Cover

To anyone, Walter White is just your average father/chemistry-teacher who is sadly diagnosed with a life threatening disease – possibly the last person you would expect to run a drug-empire and murder those who stand in his way (occasionally). This is important to learn as throughout life you will meet someone who is typically the quiet one, who doesn’t interact much, when really, they have the biggest story. So just remember, next time your sat in a lobby waiting for your job interview with a few other candidates, keep an eye on the quiet, withdrawn one, he may just win the job over you. Not everything is clear straight-away, something that made Walter so elusive.

4. If You’re Good at Something, Never do it For Free

Now, I’m not suggesting that you go home from work or school and instantly start cooking crystal meth because you may be talented at chemistry, but Walt had a talent. Not the best talent to have – but he had it, and he made a fine dollar off of it – so if you have a talent, may it be sport, painting or coding, never do it for free unless you have no ambition in life. Walt knew this and despite everything thrown in his way, he still continued to cook meth and ultimately, despite it not quite working out how he might have expected, at least he made quite a bit of money.

5. In the World of Work, Stay as Important as you Can

Walt escapes death a few times… when I say a few, I mean a half-dozen time for one pure reason – the fact that he is so important. This saves his life on many occasions when dealing with Mike, Gus and even Tuco. When he fears for his life most, Walt makes a big deal of the fact that he has more knowledge than everyone else and is therefore pretty much indispensable to the business. Now I’m not saying that your boss wants you dead, but it can definitely help you, if rumours of possible sackings are going round, if you stay as important as you can to the company you are working for.

So after this weeks action-packed episode, there are a number of things we can expect from the next episode, from the synopsis and the official AMC preview – however, both seem to show conflicting ideas so I’ll run through what I expect to happen during the next episode.

The official synopsis released from AMC is, “An enlightening mission springs from a request from one of the group members.” Now, I presume that this is relating to the new rag-tag team that Glenn and Tara met up with last episode, and their supposed mission to Washington D.C. to presumably help discover the true cause of the outbreak. It was finally nice to see some storyline development but I’m not sure if spending multiple episodes dedicated purely to these new characters is the direction that the writers and Scott Gimple will be heading in.

The preview showed quite the contrast and mainly insinuated that the episode will focus primarily on Beth and Daryl rather than the group we have been introduced to over the last two episodes – the preview showed some intense, and albeit pretty frightening-looking, scenes that we can expect from the next episode concerning Beth and Daryl exploring some very dark places – featuring a picture of Daryl looking very hungover.

There is of course the eventuality that the episode will be split between the new guys and the Beth and Daryl duo – nethertheless, it will be interesting to see how this episode will pan out, we will see the same tense, action-packed episode as we did last week or are we going to see some cool new story development – either way, I can’t wait.

Harry Lloyd, who played Viserys Targaryen for his short spell on the show, is actually the great-great-great-grandson of Victorian writer Charles Dickens, who is perhaps one of the greatest writers of all time.

Number Nine

Bastards wear their normal house colours, except inverted, therefore Jon Snow would wear a white wolf on a grey background, perfectly represented by his direwolf, ghost.

Number 8

Game of Thrones related baby names have shot up recently, in 2012, Arya was one of the most popular baby names for girls whereas Khaleesi was a common choice with over 160 parents. Scary!

Number Seven

Alfie Allen (Who plays Theon Greyjoy) is the brother of pop singer Lily Allen, who wrote this song about him, in which he is played by a disturbing puppet who does nothing but smoke drugs and play video-games.

Number Six

The horse heart that Daenerys ate during this unforgettable scene was actual a giant mass of gummy bears. I think if I was in Emilia’s shoes I would’ve thrown up more than she did.

Number Five

Actor Jack Gleeson, who plays Joffrey on the show, stated that after his role in Game of Thrones has finished, he’ll be taking a break from acting to pursue a different career path.

Number Four

The show is broadcasted in a grand total of 48 different countries, a number which not many other TV shows can compete with. Very popular indeed.

Number Three

This may not be too interesting to some of you, but to me personally, I enjoy this fact. Isaac Hempstead-Wright, who plays Bran, actually attends a school not too far away from mine, and one of the art teachers at my school actually taught him at one point. I’m pretty impressed.

Number Two

Kit Harington, who plays Jon Snow, not only starred alongside co-star Sean Bean in the Silent Hill sequel but is also the descendent of King Charles II of England. The bastard has royal blood, who knew?!

Number One

The battle and struggle for power that the series is essentially based around, is based on the English ‘civil war’, the War of the Roses – according to the novel’s author George R.R. Martin

I sat down this evening to watch my weekly fix of AMC’s The Walking Dead, a series, which in case you didn’t know focuses on a group of survivors after the zombie apocalypse. I took a load of notes down and will be running through them, hoping to reach some sort of conclusion at the end.

The major thing I enjoyed about this episode was the fact that there actually some dramatic tension, which was at a consistently good quality – the scene where Rick was hiding under the bed in a ‘Taken’ fashion, I was fully expecting some foreign terrorist to pull him out by his feet and turn him into a sex slave… no, really, I was. It was nice to see some tension at long last, as essentially, a ‘horror/drama’ should have some tension, which I believe has really been inconsistent lately. Although we didn’t just see dramatic tension this episode, we saw some ‘romantic-tension’ *raises one eyebrow seductively* in particular, Rick and Michonne! Of all the characters, I definitely could feel some vibes de l’amour throughout the opening scenes. Is Michonne going to slowly replace Lori and become the most ridiculously stupid character on the show? I hope not.

I was also pretty glad to see some development of an actual storyline, in contrast to the last two episodes of what can simply only be described as ‘wandering around’, we have the ‘scientist’, whose name escapes me, so for the process of this review, shall be named Short-Life-Expectancy-Guy (Or Sleg for short). Sleg actually brings an interesting turn in the story, about the origins of the virus, something which has really been left by the wayside since the end of season 1 when we visited the CDC and our friend Dr Jenner and his bad CGI effects-show. I’m glad to see Sleg, Ginger army dude and Lara Croft, as a trio who I hope will stay for at least a little while as I really do, despite my satirical naming system, like the characters and ginger army dude brings some much needed humour into the array as I don’t think I can cope with Carl’s 80’s sitcom laugh which we heard during his discussion with Michonne at the start of the episode, as he was munching on his surprisingly not out-of-date cereal (I can’t even keep a pack of shreddies in the cupboard without ’em going soft in a few weeks). My only criticism of Sleg and the gang is the fact, after however many years we are into this apocalypse, Sleg hasn’t been taught how to shoot and consequentially, although highly convenient for the plot to advance and keeping the characters in the show, breaks the armored vehicle (which I suspect was made on the cheap).

I noticed some quite dark scenes throughout this episode and one in particular caught my eye as being a bit rough, even for the Walking Dead’s gruesome standards: this being the scene when Michonne enters the little girls room which is full of the dead families rotting corpses – I found this particular disturbing, even to my insensitive heart-strings and felt this was very out of place, and something which may foreshadow the future of The Walking Dead, as it supposedly set to take a darker turn towards the end of the series and it will be interesting to see how this pays off.

The other things I picked up on during this episode were: Rick’s tarzan-esque dress style – ripped shirt, sleeveless, bloody cuts – all that was needed was a strong African drumming soundtrack and it’s essentially a preview for the new Tarzan film coming to our screens later this year. I also picked up on the continuity of that damn can of ‘Crazy Cheese’ which showed the slightly comical aspect which the writers were trying to include so that it was not all dark and depressing. Finally, I was glad to see that Rick had learned from Solid Snake’s stealth skills from Metal Gear Solid although he was far too patient for my liking when hiding outside the front porch and did not use a cardboard box to stealth away from the thug.

Here’s something I wrote for an English Homework today, based on the ever-growing-in-popularity Twitch Plays Pokémon and the Almighty Helix Fossil

In a day and age where democracy and anarchy are two terms so vigorously thrown around by humans and animals alike – we have to pick a side. The sinners, however, turn to the false prophet and the democratic side of things however they miss the point of our purpose. We must support the anarchist side in all of us and thrive in an environment where we must follow the commands of our lord Bird Jesus. The world is darkening and although all the time and effort we put into our day to day lives may be to no avail, there is to one deity we can turn to in our time of need.

We must consult the helix fossil, if it is the last thing we do in our lives. Consulting the God of anarchy will show us the way as we struggle to overcome the greatest difficulties in our life. Alongside his son, Bird Jesus, the first of his kind and ‘DUX’ – the slayer of trees, the holy trinity will help defeat the false prophet and bring an end to democracy one and for all. When democracy was introduced, it offered as a firm rival to the anarchy we were all used to, as when anarchy reigns, we get things done, even if it is messy.

As our life-journey progresses, days and weeks will pass to no avail but eventually when it is all over, it will only to continue to start again – except without the lord Helix Fossil and Bird Jesus but instead with a new power, one which will not fully surpass but possibly catch up with the omnipotence of the Helix. Ave gloriosa in nomine Helix.

With every cold, dark February zombies return to our TV screens, ravaging all they can in post-apocalyptic America. This is, of course, AMC’s The Walking Dead and on the 9th February, it returned to our screens after the mid-season break. To make this unbiased I’ll be just giving my opinion on the second half of the season so far.

There have so far been two episodes with another due to air this evening. After the disaster at the prison after the Governor [SPOILERS IMMINENT] killed Hershel and practically destroyed the prison – ultimately leading to his demise. The main group was split up: Rick and Carl were together, Michonne was on her own, Beth and Daryl were together, Maggie was with Sasha and our favourite alcoholic Bob whilst Tyrese was with the children – including baby Judith who we all really predicted wasn’t actually dead (as was first thought after the prison attack).

The first episode of the new half-season was certainly interesting and was in-fact a genuinely good episode and with the exception of Michonne’s scream, which I felt was slightly forced, the acting was surprisingly top quality considering some of the atrocities we saw last season. The episode had a decent plot and did very well to link characters into each-others paths. The episode centred mainly on Carl as Rick suddenly falls very ill, leaving Carl to fend for himself and indulge in the biggest can of ‘pudding’ I have ever seen. This was a breath of fresh air as until now, Carl hasn’t really proven himself and in-fact has been more of a hinderance than a help – something I have not been happy with over the past season or so – therefore it was nice to see Chandler Riggs getting some screen-time and as far as child actors go, ‘the kid ain’t bad’.

The second episode focused more on the other characters but Daryl and Beth had the most screentime – they’re an interesting pairing, Daryl is very rough and Beth is actually quite the opposite so it’s nice to see the juxtaposition of the two characters as they travel together and fight against the ever growing population of walkers. I didn’t find this episode as good as the first one but it was still a lot better than some of the episodes last season and did well to show group dynamics between characters who surprisingly work well together.

To sum up my short review of the season so far: I’m very much looking forward to what this half-season has in store for us and I’m praying that with the right writing and high quality acting, this could be the best season of the Walking Dead since Season Two. Don’t let me down Gimple & Co.

I remember my first trip to a town in Skyrim, the long journey through Morrowind had taken its toll on my boots after the tiresome journeys up and down the many mountains that were placed between my homeland and the vast arctic wasteland of Skyrim. The first town I reached after entering the region was Windhelm, known in our history books as one of the longest standing Holds in all of Tamriel. I’d heard many rumours of the civil war that had plagued this land but only really saw the full extent of things as I saw the Stormcloak leader Ulfric being escorted into his palace, the rebel guards were everywhere and I could spot the distaste of certain customers who browsed my extensive range of wares.

I didn’t get much business in Windhelm and as I had a lot of magical robes stored up, I decided to take a trip to the popular magical town of Winterhold, home of the famous college where many apprentice wizards go to train and study in whichever department of the magical arts that they see fit. It only took roughly a day to walk from Windhelm to Winterhold but as I approached the city, I spotted an ambush up ahead. I dove into a nearby bush and kept deadly still, hoping not to alert the attackers which I spotted. They were clearly bandits, they had set up a little trap for any wandering adventurer but unluckily for them, I was not just any adventurer. With my father’s bow drawn, I took a deep breath and took out one of the bandits. In a blind panic, the others fled from their camp and ran off into the Nordic wilderness which laid in wait.

I scavenged what I could from the bandit camp: a couple of arrows, some mead and a few spell tomes were the best things I found, and that’s saying something. I proceeded to enter the city and immediately headed to the inn, where I was surprised to see a large commotion surrounding the fireplace in the center of the room. “Well what are we supposed to do”, one of the redguards exclaimed, “Karlem has disappeared, Bloated-Man’s Hollow is no place for such an inexperienced adventurer”. I was about to raise my voice but then remembered that the adventurer in me was long-gone now and that it would be purely trivial for me to get involved. I skulked about in the shadowy parts of the inn, going from table to table selling goods. I made roughly 200 gold from that one inn, my biggest haul in months. It was getting late and I was not too eager to journey on through the night so I rented a room for the evening and slept through the night.

I woke up early and fully rested with the full intention of heading onto Dawnstar after visiting the College of Winterhold. I left the inn, paying for my stay (a mere 10 gold) and walked up the daunting steps towards the College. What happened next was too much for any man to explain… a sight simply too evil and too powerful to be remembered…

~Fin (Part 1?)~

If you enjoyed this I may have to continue and follow this up. If not, let this be it! Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter: @Cynical5urvivor for updates!